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Sunday, November 22, 2015

The Great Los Angeles Walk 2015 Recap: A Gold Medal for Olympic Boulevard

We did it again!

16 miles. 38,060 steps (per one Walk participant). 400 (or so) participants. Hundreds of passionate Angelenos, fueled by love of city and community, hiked across the city via Olympic Boulevard this past Saturday.

The 10th annual Great Los Angeles Walk attracted what was quite possibly our largest crowd ever, including many new walkers!

Together, we kicked things off at the newly rehabilitated Clifton's Cafeteria (which opened an hour earlier than usual, at 9 a.m., to accommodate us). After brief pep talk from Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, we were off... over to Main St., and then starting down the entire length of West Olympic. For lunch, Walkers experienced food trucks, Ethiopian restaurants and the legendary Tom Bergin's. The majority of the crowd made it to the beach by sunset.

Olympic Boulevard was named after the 10th Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles in 1932. (As spotted in Koreatown.)

The face of Olympic

Yikes! Maybe walking is the way to go!

Koreatown

Guelaguetza Restaurant

Imaginary phone

Give us a hand!

Olympic Car Wash

Oxford Square

Selfies!

"Always a hill, always a tower, always a timepiece."

The chained-up underground tunnels of Olympic

Tom Bergin's for lunch

The Bergin's bar

Inside Bergin's

The horse heads of Tom Bergin's

"Well, we sorta welcome you."

The stairs of Olympic (in West L.A.)

Mt. Sidewalk

One walker noted that, of all the streets the Great LA Walk has traveled, this was the most pleasant 405 experience. That's because, unlike streets like Wilshire or Santa Monica, there is no off ramp here.

The Expo line. As of next year, Great LA Walkers will easily take Metro light rail back to downtown!

Are You Ready?

Welcome to the Hotel California

Tongva Park

We made it! A group gathers at Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, at around 4:30 p.m.

More walkers at the end

16 miles, completely on bare feet! Thanks to this Walker, who came all the way from Santa Fe!